Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Denmark faces international boycott over Muslim cartoons - World - Times Online
Incredible, I find the degree of religious outrage against Denmark very hard to comprehend. Although I understand why some people may be upset, I can not see why anyone would be so upset that they start burning flags and boycotting Danish goods. First of all, the Muslims with this infliction do not understand one fundamental issue, namely that a single Danish newspaper does not represent the state of Denmark (nor its population for that sake). On the other hand, the Muslim states in the Middle-East seem to have missed several other important points and developments over the last 1000 years (such as general enlightenment), thus perhaps the overreaction should not come as a surprise after all.
The drawings in the Danish newspaper showed "Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban; in another he tells dead suicide bombers that he has run out of virgins with which to reward them".
Compare the Muslim outrage to for example Monty Python's religious satire, namely the extremely funny movie "Monty Python's Life of Brian". While the movie's target primarily is religious zealotry and hypocrisy, the movie can obviously be interpreted as offensive to Christians as it features a random character named Brian that is born on December 25 in a manger located not far from Jesus.
If you have not seen the movie, you probably will not know what I am talking about, but the movie was considered so blasphemous that is was banned in certain locations.
However, this was in the year 1979! Also, the makers of the movie hardly experienced the sort of pressure and threats imposed by the Islamic world on Denmark today. Imagine if the Monty Python had tried making a similar movie on the life of Muhammad!
Other blasphemous examples against the Christian faith include for example the Jesus Christ Superstar musical/movie, and even the earth shatteringly stupid book "The Da Vinci Code". However, while such offenses pass relatively unnoticed, a few politically relevant cartoons of Muhammad in a random Danish newspaper causes a tremendous uproar.
Rather than being upset at some Danish cartoons, the Muslim population in the Middle-East should be upset at their leaders. To start with, they should be upset for having to live in stone age civilizations without religious freedom or freedom of speech. Perhaps they should also take a second to wonder what happened to development in their region during the last 1000 years. Reading Danish newspapers should be the least of their concerns.
Incredible, I find the degree of religious outrage against Denmark very hard to comprehend. Although I understand why some people may be upset, I can not see why anyone would be so upset that they start burning flags and boycotting Danish goods. First of all, the Muslims with this infliction do not understand one fundamental issue, namely that a single Danish newspaper does not represent the state of Denmark (nor its population for that sake). On the other hand, the Muslim states in the Middle-East seem to have missed several other important points and developments over the last 1000 years (such as general enlightenment), thus perhaps the overreaction should not come as a surprise after all.
The drawings in the Danish newspaper showed "Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban; in another he tells dead suicide bombers that he has run out of virgins with which to reward them".
Compare the Muslim outrage to for example Monty Python's religious satire, namely the extremely funny movie "Monty Python's Life of Brian". While the movie's target primarily is religious zealotry and hypocrisy, the movie can obviously be interpreted as offensive to Christians as it features a random character named Brian that is born on December 25 in a manger located not far from Jesus.
If you have not seen the movie, you probably will not know what I am talking about, but the movie was considered so blasphemous that is was banned in certain locations.
However, this was in the year 1979! Also, the makers of the movie hardly experienced the sort of pressure and threats imposed by the Islamic world on Denmark today. Imagine if the Monty Python had tried making a similar movie on the life of Muhammad!
Other blasphemous examples against the Christian faith include for example the Jesus Christ Superstar musical/movie, and even the earth shatteringly stupid book "The Da Vinci Code". However, while such offenses pass relatively unnoticed, a few politically relevant cartoons of Muhammad in a random Danish newspaper causes a tremendous uproar.
Rather than being upset at some Danish cartoons, the Muslim population in the Middle-East should be upset at their leaders. To start with, they should be upset for having to live in stone age civilizations without religious freedom or freedom of speech. Perhaps they should also take a second to wonder what happened to development in their region during the last 1000 years. Reading Danish newspapers should be the least of their concerns.
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